Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-07-17
The Restriction Act.

lie heStflCtlOIl ACt, 81 idi az itn
efficacy in restraining the landing of
Chinese is concerned, is a dead letter
in San Francisco The Federal Gus
toms officers do all in their power to
carry out the law. They carefully
scrutinize the arrivals from China,
and permit none to land who have not
a clear right, under the treaty and the
law of Congress, to residential privil-
eyes. But their efforts are rendered
futile b. the Federal Courts. Justice
Sawyer, of the Circuit Court, and
Judge Hoffman, of the District Court,
by their construction of the Act have
rendered its provisions OF exclusion
nugatory. II seems as if these gen.
tlemen were personally antagonistic
to the policy of the law, and exercise
their judicial powers, not to carry out
the behests of the National Legisla-
ture, but for the purpose of gratifying
their personal prejudices. Indeed,
they have done this thing so persist
emily and so glaringly that we
believe their action ought to be
made the subject of Congressional
inquiry. If an Act of Congress can
be effectually set aside by the judges
i'm the face of its plainest provisions
and the facts presented to the courts,
there is an end to the binding force OF
legislation. The courts themselves
usurp the law-making power, and
become the trainers of statutes by
their exercise of construction. Last
Wednesday a typical case of judicial
usurpation was presented in the
United States Circuit Court, Justice
Lorenzo Sawyer presiding. Wal
Duck came in from China on the
steamer San Pablo, and offered a GER
tificate, according to which he left
this port in August, 1885, and at the
time had long scar on his right
cheek. For reasons which seemed
good to them the customs officers
decided that Duck was fraud. The
easily-had writ was obtained and the
Chinaman appeared in Judge Saw
yer's presence. 1t was shown that on
board the SAM Pablo Duck swore that
the scar on his face had been there no
longer than three months. He swore,
too, that he had lived in st. Helena
for eight years and described that
inland town as seaport. His height
was three-quarters OF an inch greater
than that called for in the certificate.
Finally, he admitted under oath that
he had never been in the United
States before Nevertheless, Judge
Sawyer pushed Duck through
the Restriction Act and made him
"A resident of the United States. Now,
here is case i'm which there can be
no doubt that the holder of the GER
tificate had no right to land. The
man himself, after breaking down in
his false testimony to prove his pre-
yiOus residence, admitted that he had
never been in the country before, but
he was admitted by the Court. If
this is not making the law farce by
Judicial assumption, what is it? The
power of hdbeas corpus has been sue
cessfally invoked i'm hundreds of cases
to nullify the statute. The law says IL
certain class of persons shall not land.
The officers OF the customs refuse to
permit those who have not the neces-
sary certificates to land. They are at
once taken before the Courts, the
fraudulency OF their certificates is ap-
parent, and yet they are admitted to
the rights OF residence. 1t is well
known that regular traffic is carried
On i'm false certificates, and that every
coolie who is put on board steamer
in Hong Kong is provided with one.
Yet these fraudulent certificates are
made, through the action Of the Fed
eral Judges, to subserve the purpose of
genuine ones, as is apparent from the
facts as shown in the case of Wal
Duck. We believe that the Restrc-
fion Act is carefully enough framed to
accomplish the purpose of exclusion
II it were fairly interpreted. But it
ru ght to be construed by Judges who
are not determined to nullify it.